case. Shop closures, the ability to adapt…, in Toulouse, why big stores are losing momentum
While the rate of opening large stores (over 300 m2) has slowed significantly in recent years, many shopping centers in Toulouse are experiencing difficulties.
Big businesses are not really popular anymore. In 2018, about 22,000 m2 Surface areas were authorized by the Haut-Garonne Departmental Commercial Development Commission. Four years later, this figure dropped to 9,200 meters2.
Is retail in the suburbs struggling, as the empty shops in Saint-Orens, Roux and Portet suggest? “We have to distinguish between hypermarkets, which still have a lot of appeal, especially with inflation, and the associated shopping malls, which are losing momentum,” notes Yoan Thessier, responsible for economics and commerce studies at the Urban Planning Agency. Toulouse
Organic and closed in clothes
The statistics do not show any major fluctuation in circumference, adds the expert. There are closures, especially in the clothing sector, but this also concerns downtown Toulouse. The organic sector also experienced four closures in 2022. “This is particularly because of inflation, low-cost supermarkets have taken a share of that.”
According to landowners in the Saint-Orens commercial area, there is also hope around an outdoor hypermarket. “We have to adapt to socio-commercial categories and consumer demand,” explains Laurent de Sève, co-founder of Imocom Partners.
“Probable” for the Saint-Orens area.
With the construction of the new Malepere district (more than 6,000 housing units in the long term), “the geographical area is buoyant”. The shopping center of the shopping center is suffering, but despite the announcement of the closure of the decathlon, Laurent de Sev believes in the area, which has been declared as a disaster: “The potential is enormous.”
“Saint-Orens suffers from competition from the Lebage shopping center, boosted by 20,000 jobs. Employees go there during the week to eat, do their shopping there, like Blagnec. But Saint-Orens can still separate itself from the game” , Analyzes Yoann Thisier. Especially since, according to AUAT, two-thirds of Toulouse residents still go shopping in supermarkets in the outskirts, which meets expectations, especially in times of inflation. The organization notes that food discounters continue to open at a rapid pace.
Commercial areas that are inactive or changing
In Toulouse, however, commercial areas are experiencing a significant reduction or change in speed. The Hippodrome area, at La Cépière, suffered from a poorly thought-out location, and the Casino and Decathlon locomotives quickly abandoned ship. Following the group’s announcement of the sale of several dozen hypermarkets, the Basso Cambo shopping center is still in disarray. A massive urban restructuring is underway in this area of western Toulouse, where the Val Toulosa shopping center in Placens-du-Touch is firmly abandoned.
